Ron Dortch

The late August Wilson is one of America's greatest playwrights. From the early 1980s up until his death in 2005, Wilson wrote 10 plays, each encompassing African American life in a different decade focusing on the same Pittsburgh neighborhood, with Ma Rainey's Black Bottom being the sole play to occur outside of Pittsburgh. These 10 plays when put together are known as The Pittsburgh Cycle or Century Cycle, and is considered some of the 10 best plays ever written by an American playwright.